8-Ball Foundation helps local media members

In response to a plea to friends on Facebook.com to help him find work because he and his wife were "well behind on bills and are about to be evicted" from their apartment, USC football radio play-by-play man Pete Arbogast has told Don Barrett at LARadio.com that he is thankful for the help provided by a local non-profit organization that helps media members in need.

The 8-Ball Welfare Foundation (linked here), which since 1954 has supplied financial aid, was able to assist Arbogast after he said in April that his only income has been from doing the 12 Trojan football games a year for KSPN-AM (710) as a free-lancer and "they are not enough on which to make a living," nor do they provide health or dental insurance.

"This is a drastic step to take, but I'm not sure where else to turn," Arbogast said in his Facebook post. "While there are certainly people who would (and will) chide me for doing this sort of thing, I can't think of a group of people I would rather put my trust in to help see me through than longtime friends and colleagues."

After the 8-Ball Wellfare assistance, Arbogast told Barrett: "These guys really came through in a very tight spot, and I will repay it either monetarily or through service as I can."

Bob Tarlau, a board member and treasurer for the organization, told Barrett that the group came into being when the original downtown Los Angeles Daily News closed nearly 60 years ago. While some of the reporters got jobs with the L.A. Times or other papers, many wer eout of work and turned to the L.A. Press Club for help.

(The current L.A. Daily News took the name in the early 1980s, changing over from the Valley News and Green Sheet).

The creation of the 8-Ball Welfare Foundation is to help media members in Southern California receive grants to pay for necessities such as rent, medical care or food when they are in trouble.

"So many from the journalism world have been consistent donors over the years but we would like to do more to reach out to the radio community," Tarlau said.